Cost

(Our discussion continued.)

“You may be going too far, my friend. For sure there are people working on paper recycle, solar energy, or similar kinds of things. They do help our environment!” I remained unconvinced.

“Alas, too simple, and sometimes naïve,” L was suddenly playing the old Jimmy, “Yes, it sounds great to see old books and expired journals turning into boxes and tissue papers. But, have you ever thought of the process of that conversion? It takes energy – which means electricity and consumption of more fossil fuel – clean water, and a whole lot of chemicals – detergent, bleach, and a handful of others. If you sweep all these under the carpet, yes, this black-box magic does help our planet.”

My mouth was wide open; I’d never thought of this.

“Even if we consider your solar energy,” he continued, “Clean and healthy as it seems, the construction of a solar energy plant is a different ball game. To build a photovoltaic power system that converts sunlight to electricity requires specific metals and minerals – notably silicon and cadmium – and the production of solar cells would offset any benefit of solar energy on the environment – and we have not considered the opportunistic cost of using up valuable places that we'd better plant trees!”